This is the blog of Kilian Jörg, a philosopher and artist based in Vienna and Berlin. He is the founder of philosophy unbound, his main topics are ecological epistemology and the intersection of art and philosophy. Contact him via: kilian[at]jorg[dot]at

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Montag, 5. Dezember 2016

MASCULINITIES - Philosophy Unbound #14 on 8th of December 2016 in Vienna

I am very glad to announce that Philosophy Unbound is dedicating its next evening to a topic that is particular important to me. In the last year I have been extensively delving into a research-field that can be summoned under the name 'masculinity studies'. I was quite surprised by how much important work there has already been done in this field and how dis-proportionally unknown their authors, discourses and acquired knowledge were even to me, an academically trained philosopher who identifies as a feminist. This of course reflects the status of this discourse in a larger, "intellectual mainstream media" habitat: whereas female roles, mechanisms of subjection, oppression and suppression are quite (though not necessarily enough) often a subject of debate, male roles, how they are established, enforced and dualistically constructed are much less a subject of public debate. This is sad, because it reflects a typical dynamic of a scheme of oppression: oppressed groups tend to be intellectually much more reflected than their oppressors.

If our goal is to work towards ending hegemonic masculinity (in the sense of Raewyn Connell) a reflection on the constitution of masculinities is necessary. In a time of a certain neo-patriarchal backlash we need to understand how the success of a Trump, an Erdogan and - luckily not to the same extent, because he was defeated yesterday - Hofer (47% are still way too much) but as well how phenomena like Daesh or Breivik are related to masculinity - and how these two seemingly distinct phenomena correlate into a reinforcement of patriarchal structures: there is talk about a 'crisis of men' these days, but it seems, that those mechanisms of crisis are an essential part of a machine that is securing and re-actualizing male hegemony. To progress in the project of feminism (perhaps the most important discursive streams of the last centuries) we need to integrate male roles into our reflections. I whole-heartedly invite you to come to Spektakel and Celeste this Thursday and contribute in small parts to this important project - let us reflect and discuss masculinities and their dynamics.

Philosophy Unbound #14 will explore MASCULINITIES

In the name of Feminism, we call for a deconstruction of “the man“ and for male roles to be questioned and pluralized. What makes “a man”? To man-up or rather to learn how to cry? Why is the call for a “strong man” still appealing ? How do this topic’s lines of flight relate to conservative backlashes of sex-/gender- roles?